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Crack use connects Rob Ford to gang culture he condemned after Danzig shootings

In the days after the Danzig St. shooting that killed two and injured 23, a furious Mayor Rob Ford declared “war” on gangs, decried “hug a thug” programs and vowed to lock up or run gangsters out of town.

He was telling the gangbangers with guns to get out of his city.

On Tuesday, Ford, with his admission that he has smoked crack cocaine, revealed the extent to which he has been associated with the same people he had so publicly condemned.

The man who had the video of the mayor appearing to smoke crack cocaine, and who told the Star he had sold drugs to Ford before, was arrested in June as part of a major raid that targeted the Dixon City Bloods. That man, Mohamed Siad, 27, is facing a slew of gun and drug trafficking charges. The raid netted a total of 40 guns, many smuggled across the U.S. border, and $3 million in drugs.

The house where Police Chief Bill Blair says the video was shot, 15 Windsor Rd., is a “crack house,” according to search warrant documents released last week, in which police allege that it “belongs to a couple of crack heads but Dixon guys go there to ‘chop’ crack or just hang out and get drunk.”

In a police document released last week, detectives speculated that between January and March (the time the video may have been made) Ford was paying utility bills at the 15 Windsor house. Neither Ford nor members of the Basso family that owns the home will comment on this.

The document said alleged Dixon City Bloods members Anthony Smith, Monir Kassim, Ahmed Dirie and Liban Siyad were seen at the address. (All except Smith, who was shot dead in March, have since been arrested.)

That house is the backdrop for the infamous photo depicting Ford alongside three alleged gang members, including Smith. The other two were arrested in the June police raid. One is facing gun charges.

Ford’s association with these people and events has compromised his position of leadership and his role as the mentor he has often claimed to be, many say.

“To inspire police officers to put their lives on the line to police gun crime, surely a public leader has to speak from a position of moral authority. How can Ford possibly do that when he’s been smoking crack with a crew of suspected gun dealers?” said leading criminal lawyer Reid Rusonik.

Bill Blair and other justice system officials have repeatedly commented on the impact of drugs and gun violence in Toronto.

After the Project Traveller raids, Blair said these activities “have a devastating impact on communities and on families, and on those who are victims of violence and crime in our communities.”

Toronto police seize two to three crime guns per day, increasingly from kids.

A recent Star investigation revealed that while violent crimes have declined, the rate of youth accused of gun crimes rose nearly 50 per cent between 2002 and 2008.

Ford himself has often talked of being a mentor to young people, particularly the kids at North Etobicoke’s Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where he formerly coached football.

In a March interview with Sun News, Ford said Don Bosco Eagles players would not attend school if not for the football program, that many players “come from gangs” and from “broken homes,” and that Don Bosco is a “tough school” in a “tough area.”

(In May, the Toronto Catholic board banned Ford from coaching after a letter signed by a “significant number of teachers” called Ford’s words “disgusting” and “no reflection of the real Don Bosco.”)

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According to people who mentor youth at risk of being lured into gangs, the mayor has shown he is no role model. “Anybody who is in leadership needs to be functioning with ethics and moral aptitude,” said Rev. Sky Starr, who works in the Jane and Finch community. “From where I’m looking at, and from the mayor’s admission, he’s not being a moral example.”

Joan Howard lost her son Kempton to gun violence nearly a decade ago and has been working to end gun violence ever since.

“People look up to the mayor,” she said, adding: “He can’t tell me, ‘Joan, I’m trying to clean up the streets of these guns,’ and he’s associating himself with these people.”

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